5/5 The Americanization of Emily
  by Gregory Semar
Great movie to add to my collection. Received as promised. No problems at all.

4/5 "The first dead man on Omaha Beach must be a sailor!" ...and James Garner is a sailor
  by C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA)
Paddy Chayefsky's fluent, clever, pungent polemics have always seemed more than a little stagy to me. If there was an opportunity for Chayefsky to shake his finger at us and give us a speech, he couldn't resist. The Americanization of Emily, a clever romantic drama about war, heroics and practicality, is a good example. Nearly 45 years after it was filmed, the movie still packs a cynically amusing anti-war punch...but those speeches sure do go on. If James Garner, Julie Andrews and Melvyn Douglas weren't such sympathetic and skilled actors, we might be tempted to leave the movie playing while we take a bathroom break or make a fresh bowl of popcorn. The movie has a running time of nearly two hours, so you'll probably need to do both anyway.

If Chayefsky's speeches wind up doing turnabouts, the story line is simple and sweet. It's 1944 in London and Lieutenant Commander Charlie Madison (Garner) has used all of his charm and skill to stay far away from danger. He thinks war is a fool's game where people can get killed. The real heroes are the cowards who stay far away from the senseless killing. (Of course, Chayefsky gives Charlie a back-story that is touching, brave and good for a tear up or two.) He's comfortably on the staff of the aging political Admiral William Jessup (Douglas), working with a fellow Lieutenant Commander, Bus Cummings (James Coburn), to set up lavish parties for the brass and VIPs, with plenty of rationed goods -- dry-aged strip steaks, avocados and bourbon -- and friendly women. Then he meets Emily Barham (Julie Andrews), whose father died in an air raid, brother was shot down during the Blitz and whose husband was killed at Tobruk. Now she's in uniform serving as a driver. With much back and forthing about Brits, Americans, sex, Hershey bars, heroics, duty, bravery and heart-felt cynicism, etc., etc., etc., they fall in love. By then Admiral Jessup is going gaga and decides a movie about the heroic first man on the D-Day beaches would be a terrific PR scoop for the Navy. Charlie finds himself with no wiggle room and is soon wading through the surf on what could well be a dead hero's mission. Will Charlie survive? Will Bus set him up to be a dead hero? Will Emily inspire him? Will Chayefsky give just about everyone, but mainly Garner, long speeches for us to be charmed and challenged by? Need you ask?

Without Garner's and Andrew's likability, this movie would get tiresome quickly. It really needs to lose about half an hour and Chayefsky needs a tough-minded editor. Still, the polemics are often funny and uneasy and Garner was one of the best of the laid-back, charmingly skeptical leading men of his time. (Three roles that I think show him at his best, whatever one thinks of the movies, are Jason McCullough in Support Your Local Sheriff, Murphy Jones in Murphy's Romance and Raymond Hope in Twilight.) He does an exceptional job with Chayefsky's words.

Why not give the last word...well, the last many words, to Chayefsky wearing his Charlie Madison mask. Madison sure was a fluent, facile speechifier. Says Charlie: War isn't hell at all. It's man at his best; the highest morality he's capable of. It's not war that's insane, you see. It's the morality of it. It's not greed or ambition that makes war: it's goodness. Wars are always fought for the best of reasons: for liberation or manifest destiny. Always against tyranny and always in the interest of humanity. So far this war, we've managed to butcher some ten million humans in the interest of humanity. Next war it seems we'll have to destroy all of man in order to preserve his damn dignity. It's not war that's unnatural to us, it's virtue. As long as valor remains a virtue, we shall have soldiers. So, I preach cowardice. Through cowardice, we shall all be saved.

Time to make the popcorn, or to run down to the store and buy a bag from Chayefsky.

The black-and-white DVD transfer looks just fine. There is a commentary track with the director, Arthur Hiller.

4/5 A satirical comedy with a pleasant romance
  by Joseph M. Seda
A comedy about military ideals faced with practical realities, sabotaged by manipulation for personal goals. A romance is thrown in for good measure. I bought this because of the plot, James Garner and Julie Andrews. The director was not up to this potential.

5/5 Stumbled upon this one and so very grateful for it
  by Zahira Zaandam (Oranjestad, Aruba)
I have always been a HUGE Julie Andrews but mainly because of the obvious box office successes she had with Poppins, Sound of Music and a bit less with Victor/Victoria.

Doing some research on her entire body of work lately I discovered some footage of this movie and was instantly intrigued. I was marvelously surprised by The Americanization of Emily. Great screenplay, superb acting by Garner, Coburn and especially refreshing to see Andrews in this role, even more so knowing it was done between two of her "sweeter" roles.

Charlie Madison is so clever in defending his cowardice that you actually like him more for being a coward.

I do agree with some other reviews that the actor portraying the drunken sailor in the latter part of the movie is A1.

I am buying this one to have in my collection and watch it over and over again.


5/5 a good war film, no matter what side you take
  by Jo (Wellington, New Zealand)
Being a Julie Andrews fan under 30, I wasn't alive to see most of her films the first time around. I have seen them all, bar two. She isn't the greatest actor; we must all admit that. Saying this, despite being only her second on-screen role -- filmed between "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music" -- "The Americanization of Emily" is by far her best film. The dashing James Garner has considerable acting ability to match his good looks.

The best part about this war movie is that it doesn't take sides; it accepts the fact that people go to war, whether they like it or not. What it does depend on heavily is that war changes all the people directly involved. War is intrinsically a life-altering experience. This movie has its cheesier moments, but overall I enjoy that it focuses on a love story rather than graphic realism. It's a breath of fresh air amidst today's "super-realist" war films.